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More than 2,400 emergency medical care workers in Sacramento, the Central Valley and Bay Area have moved to dump Service Employees International Union Local 250.

The workers -- critical-care nurses, paramedics, technicians and others employed by American Medical Response -- want to go with a new Sacramento-based union that focuses solely on their industry.

If successful, the move could create a crack in a union juggernaut as it begins the largest hospital contract campaign in California history. It could also mean a new union headquarters in town with a potential of up to 100,000 members nationwide.

SEIU is fighting back. The union filed unfair labor charges and a lawsuit that claims the folks behind the new association are secretly working with management at American Medical Response. Along with the members, about $1.2 million in annual union dues is at stake.

Supporters of the new union say SEIU has largely overlooked emergency workers, focusing instead on high-profile hospital and nursing home campaigns. The current five-year contract, which ends June 30, 2006, didn't address their concerns, they say.

Local 250 president Sal Roselli said the contract is the best private-sector deal for emergency medical services (EMS) workers in the nation in terms of wages and benefits -- and it took the union's clout and numbers to make it happen.

"I'm absolutely confident," he said, "when all the facts come out and there is a vote, that paramedics and others will go with SEIU."

Movement takes off nationally: Local 250 has about 90,000 members in Northern California. Most are nurses' aides, respiratory therapists, and dietary, housekeeping, technical and support staff who work in hospitals, nursing homes or private homes. EMS professionals make up less than 3 percent of membership.

Ringleaders behind the new union needed more than 800 signatures to dump SEIU and call for a vote. They got 1,300 in two days and filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board March 12.

The petition seeks to de-certify SEIU and replace it with the National Emergency Medical Service Association (NEMSA), an independent labor organization devoted to representing EMS professionals only. A vote could come by late April.

The new union was formed Feb. 4 by three former field representatives who worked in the EMS division at SEIU. Resentment built up over time, sources say, but workers hung on because there was no alternative.

Timing is critical.

This week, a Sacramento forum kicked off contract negotiations between SEIU and 23 healthcare employers with 50,000 workers statewide, including 2,695 who work at six local organizations affiliated with Catholic Healthcare West. SEIU says it's the largest hospital contract campaign in state history -- and predicts the united strength of so many employees will pay off in significant gains.

There's also an EMS division at Local 250 that includes nearly 3,000 workers, most of them American Medical Response employees.

"EMS workers get swallowed up," said Torren Colcord, a paramedic for 15 years, former shop steward for SEIU Local 250 and president of the new union. "EMS workers are highly trained and have their own subculture, if you will, unlike the rest of the membership. These 3,000 get table scraps."

Firefighters have their own union. So do police officers, registered nurses and teachers.

With no advertising, petitions to dump SEIU and go with the new union were quickly signed by more than 90 percent of the full-time workers at American Medical Response in Northern California, sources say. Supporters are circulating petitions in Boston and Los Angeles too. Meetings are being held in Nevada, Michigan, Arizona, Texas and Washington.

"The tinderbox was so ready to be lit," Colcord said. "It's taken off."

Money for nothing: "It's let it go, let it go, let it go until we come to contract negotiations -- and then we didn't get what we wanted," said Aaron Pelican, an emergency medical technician in Sacramento.

Big on his list is retirement or pension pay. Pelican, who is 40, said the emergency services work force, like others, is aging. People are staying in the profession longer, making a career out of it. The cost of living is rising in Sacramento, making it harder for workers to live here.

"We need a union centered on us, like fire and police," he said. "Multiple disciplines no longer work for us. A time has come for this to happen."

Kevin Tarbell, another local EMS worker, complains that SEIU consolidated different groups at American Medical Response and then played them against each other.

"It's not very union-ish. If you don't kiss their butts, you are forever blacklisted," he said. "We thought we were on the outside on this in Sacramento -- and then found out others agreed with us."

Part of the problem is that units have equal representation, regardless of size, Tarbell said. Thus the 365-member Sacramento unit gets no more say than one with 20 people. A new union means a chance to change the system.

Monthly dues of $42 now go to SEIU. If the almost 3,000 emergency services workers in Northern California -- including the ones who don't work for American Medical Response -- put that money in one pot, it comes to $1.5 million.

"Where is our money going now? They're getting a significant chunk of money and not spending any of it on our issues," Tarbell said. "We now have enough money to do something ourselves."

SEIU has its loyalists: Local 250 has more than 90,000 members, an annual budget of $44 million and staff of 240. That means clout at the bargaining table, said Rod Billings, a paramedic and SEIU shop steward in Contra Costa County.

The last contract had pay raises of 4 percent to 6 percent a year, vacation and paid time off comparable to or better than any similar bargaining unit across the country, he said. Members who didn't like it could have voted it down -- or tried to change it from the inside.

"NEMSA has no budget, no members and has never negotiated a single contract, which is a very tricky thing to do," Billings said.

"The employer has only so many dollars set aside for salaries and benefits," said Larry Perry, a paramedic who helped organize his San Joaquin County comrades into SEIU a decade ago. "Why would a smaller group have more clout than a larger one?"

Roland Guy, a registered nurse at American Medical Response in Concord who also got his peers on board at SEIU, is hanging tight, too.

"The benefits are excellent, the pay is great and there's job security in place," he said. Guy credits "the power of SEIU" and feels the mix of scores of different fields and people brings strength to the bargaining table.

"I don't see the majority of our issues as that different from janitors," he said, referring to an aggressive campaign by another SEIU local to organize low-wage janitors in Sacramento and across the nation.

"It's job security, pay, benefits and scheduling," Guy said. "There's a need for some specific knowledge, but typically, the issues are the same."

Guy and others accuse American Medical Response of meddling with union affairs, however. They claim former SEIU staff colluded with the employer to decertify the union and bring in what they call a company shop.

AMR says it's neutral: Not so, counters Doug Petrick, director of operations for American Medical Response in the Sacramento Valley.

"I'm not aware of anything like that," he said. "We're kind of on the sidelines on this whole thing. We were unaware anything was happening until it was announced.

"From the employer's standpoint, it doesn't make any difference to us. We respect our employees' right to decide which union will represent them. We'll work with whatever group comes out of this."

The Sacramento law firm of Carroll Burdick & McDonough provides legal counsel to the new union and has offered space in their office at 2100 21st St. in midtown Sacramento.

SEIU -- ticked at being tossed out -- filed allegations that have no merit in order to stop a vote for the new union, said Tim Talbot from the Carroll Burdick firm.

"The lawsuit is intended to chill the activity and scare employees," Talbot said. It also distracts Colcord and others, he said.

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